Baumann Floats Leaving Business; “Loss for LSA”

Pilots interested in a floatplane LSA and airplane sellers seeking floats lost a good supplier today when Baumann Floats, based at the South St. Paul, Minnesota airport closed its doors. *** In an email, General Manager Joe Birkemeyer wrote, “Due to the unfortunate economic conditions we have all faced in the past couple of years, our current owner of Baumann Floats LLC has decided to discontinue production of all of our float models. The equipment, design data, STCs and inventory will be relocated to Oshkosh, Wisconsin and placed with Basler Turbo Conversions LLC. I personally as well as the rest of my crew will not be moving over to Oshkosh with the company and we will no longer be employed by Baumann Floats LLC. Randy Myers, head of production at Basler Turbo Conversions will be the new interim contact person for any parts orders after April, 1, 2011. I realize that many of you have invested significant amounts of hard earned money into your airplanes by purchasing and equipping your planes with floats from Baumann Floats LLC. It is my sincere hope that there will be continued customer support addressed in a timely fashion for parts and products manufactured by Baumann Floats LLC.” *** Phil Lockwood, developer of the twin-engine AirCam, lamented the loss as “Bad news for the LSA industry.” He explained that Baumann’s all-metal floats were quality built and perfectly suited to Light-Sport Aircraft.